Existence Persists
by xXxItsDarkOutsidexXx
Summary: It was all his dad's fault. Every bad thing that happened to Axel in his life could be traced back to his dad. There was nothing he could do about it now, though, nothing but live with everything life threw at him. And maybe the bad stuff had caused the good stuff, so maybe it wasn't all that bad.
1. Chapter 1

**Existence Persists by xXxItsDarkOutsidexXx**

**Disclaimer:** I clearly don't own any of the Kingdom Hearts characters, or Reno. And also, the bags around their necks, I believe that idea came from Dragon's Blood, which is a great book, you should all read it.

**Summary:** It was all his dad's fault. Every bad thing that happened to Axel in his life could be traced back to his dad. There was nothing he could do about it now, though, nothing but live with everything life threw at him. And maybe the bad stuff had caused the good stuff, so maybe it wasn't all that bad.

**Author's Note:** I'm apologizing beforehand how out of character everyone is. My excuse is that they're a lot younger in this story but the real reason is that originally this was a back story for a book I was working on and the characters in it are all _loosely based on_ Kingdom Hearts characters. I've pretty much scraped the story but I liked this and I figured I could make it into a fanfiction with some tweaking; maybe I'll even build off this oneshot and make it into a story of its own. Who knows? Probably not though.

And also, I did minimal editing… so sorry for that as well.

_August 2410_

Karsiv Valley wasn't a real valley in any respect. It stood with two great hills—mountains even— called Haliwage and Ashwick, only on one side with the wide glossy stretch of ocean that seemed to go on forever, as it wound itself away from the northern peninsula that you couldn't see from the valley even if you stood on the beach, on the other. Karsiv Valley was the largest city of the western part of the world, naturally The Road started here, between the two hills, it was the only passage into the city, and then ended in Lilitum—this city is now abandon but that story is something else entirely. As cities on Kalendae went, though, it was big enough for six Pack-Crawlers and a collage but small enough for a failing fish industry, a single market square and only one straight cobblestone-like street of shops. Inside the city limits was winding road after winding road, everything leading to everything else and sometimes nothing, secret places no one knew about and tiny little garden parks hidden among houses and between buildings and in the strangest places; the houses were of various sizes but all were made beautifully and all were of similar styles and colors (usually creams, silvers, pale blues, yellows and whites) and they glittered in the moon light. During False-dawn they lit up like a second sun. On the other side of the sagebrush covered hills were miles and miles of wasteland so vast and the color of blue ash that it seemed to trap the city on an island between two oceans.

Axel lived in a small, two-bedroom house that, if you didn't know it was there it was quite possible to miss it entirely. The house was squished between Whicker's Minds, a one-room school for grades 1-3, and a basilisk ranch all backed up against a flat side of Haliwage Hill (this hill was more of a plateau than anything else and had a sheer cliff overlooking the ocean). All three buildings were made of the same creamy red stone and had similar dark tiling on their roofs with specks of what looked like crystal sprinkles. They were so close that they could have been easily mistaken for a single building.

There wasn't much space in the way of empty land in Karsiv Valley, because it was walled up on all sides every single space available was covered in either a house or a shop or the city's trademark cobbled roads. Only one stretch of land was completely empty, owned by some rich tradesman, and was left untouched. In his words it was to "preserve the wonder and majesty of their vale before human-kind came to ruin it." It sat on the other side of the school and went on until it reached the ocean where the little stone path lead the only safe way up Haliwage Hill to the Temple of Sevda.

In this field, where the grass and weeds were high and brittle, you could walk and a cloud of miniature grasshoppers would spread to either side in your wake, quick to escape the impending crash of bare feet on their heads. In the summer Axel would go through the field to the ocean just to get away from his home and watch them fly, flutter-buzz of wings all around, sandy-blue insects to match the withered vegetation and the land surrounding and lay down in the azure grass and watch the ocean waters lap at the hoary stone shore; dead heat of the sun on his head and a plastic bottle of jadefruit juice sweating in his hand.

It was one such afternoon in the dead of August while Axel was lounging on his back in the graying grass with the sun beating on his eternally pale skin that his brother, Reno, came looking for him.

Looking at Reno was like looking in a mirror. They had the same burgundy hair and the same pastel skin; they were both tall for their ages but while Ash was thin and boney with angled features Reno had a strong, lean appearance. Reno's sharp, blue-green eyes flashed dangerously and caught his own green, dull and soft in comparison, and stared.

They watched each other for what felt to Axel to be hours and hours until Reno nodded toward the house with his chin. Axel, understanding, got to his feet as he began to move away from his patch of grass just as Reno reached out and snatched the juice from his hand. Before Axel could protest he threw his head back and downed what was left in the bottle and then, in a wide arc, tossed the thing into the sea. Scowling Axel shuffled back through the field with his hands in his pockets. He walked as slowly as he could, fearing that when he got home father would be waiting with a whipping for a forgotten chore or failed grade. Or maybe he was drunk again and Reno wanted to save himself the beating by sending Ash home first. Whatever the reason Reno didn't follow him and when he got home everything was still.

He pushed the door open as silently as he could and tip-toed into the dark family room, from there he could see a thin line of light under the door in the kitchen. He could hear the hushed voices of people who didn't care if the people home heard them but were trying to not be heard through the walls, even though no one could hear you outside the house anyway.

Happier now that he could hear no yelling, therefore his father was not drunk—which was a feat within itself—he went over to the kitchen door and tapped lightly. The whispered voices stopped for a moment and then his mother's voice came, hesitant at first.

"Reno, is that you?"

"No it's me," he said, she would know.

"Honey, come in."

Axel pushed the door open and came face to face with a strange man. He was weathered to the point that he looked much older than he probably was and even Axel could see the underlying sadness behind his smile. He stuck his hand out and Axel hesitantly took it.

"Cadence, this is my other son, Axel. Axel, this is Cadence. He's a fisherman."

"Hullo," Axel mumbled dropping his hand to his side.

"Honey," Axel looked into her eyes, the same brown as his but somehow on her they looked much more sweet and less dreary, "Honey, daddy… he isn't coming home anymore."

"Why not?" Axel looked up at Cadence sharply, "…Is-is he your boyfriend?"

"No. Honey, daddy isn't coming home because he… he had an accident."

Cadence had found the body floating in the water near the docks. He had plunged head first off the dock and into the deep waters on his way home from his favorite liquor store (that was usually where he went after he got kicked out of his favorite bar next to it); floundering in his bungling drunken state he had attracted a frill shark. It was gruesome, only bits and pieces were recognizable.

Axel's father wasn't coming home. And then everything was different.


	2. Chapter 2

_December 2410_

Axel said goodbye to his spot.

Because apparently in a world where his father was not there to beat him and tell him that he was a bad boy that needed to go to confession he wasn't allowed to have a spot… or a place to live.

Later that day, after packing up all the things they could carry into a duffle bag Axel, Reno and their mother left the house, unlocked, for the city to clean out.

Axel felt his mother thread her long frail fingers through his as she turned them toward the road and away from home. Reno held their bag over his shoulder, twisting a cap onto his head to cover the offending bright red hair and Axel was surprised when Reno put his arm around him, but he savored the tiny notion of affection all the same.

As they approached Aye-Sir's living quarters his mother tugged on their intertwined fingers. He looked up at her curiously. She too was impossibly tall, but graceful, and he could not see her eyes as she stared straight ahead.

"We are bonders, but we will free ourselves. Remember that. No man but you can put coin in that bag."

Axel wasn't sure what that meant, but when he looked to his other side Reno was bobbing his head in recognition to what she had said so he did the same. If Reno agreed then it would be wise to agree also, he was smart, their mom used to say, because he did lots of listening.

Ash figured that whoever owned the bond house must not have bought very smart men, though, all they did was disagree with themselves. The first man told them to put their stuff down at their feet, he shuffled through it, tossed some things behind him like he had a right to, bundled the stuff in a messy pile and then left. Three minutes later another man—this guy was young and sinewy with dark shadows under his eyes and around his chin—and snapped at them to pick the stuff up and be quite. The third guy came in and started yelling and asking for their names and to stand still and not move.

Axel's mom answered the questions with a carefully leveled voice. Axel didn't understand most of it, but guessed it had to do with money and his dad, because it was his entire fault anyway.

He was next, taking a deep breath and in a quick—and probably too loud voice—he recited his name, age and address like his mother had taught him to do if he was ever lost. The man smirked and shook his head as he wrote the information down.

He slid to the right and looked expectantly at Reno who stood still with his head high and his eyes trained forward.

"Name and age."

The man waited a moment.

"Name and age, _please_." The "please" wasn't very pleasant, he said it more like it was expected that he would say "tell me now or I'll cut your head off." Huffing loudly he scribbled something down on his clip board. "_Well_?"

Out of the corner of his eye Axel could see his mother shake, but she didn't say anything. Reno turned to her desperately and the big man struck him on the side of the head.

A growl-like whimper sound emitted from Reno's throat and he crouched holding his face, Axel squeaked involuntarily but their mother remained motionless, like they weren't there, like they had known each other for less time than it took to snap your fingers.

"Don't you speak boy? You dumb?" Number Three was raising his hand again and big, tough, always-sure-of-himself Reno flinched away.

"Wait!" No matter how much he had hated Reno it wasn't fair to be tortured until you did something impossible. "He—he's mute." Axel could feel himself deflating, knowing a beating would surely come now whether he helped or not. "His name is Reno. He's fourteen."

Three's scrutinizing gaze burned into him. Licking his lips the man flicked his fingers up and Number One and Two slid from the shadows where Axel hadn't even noticed them and went to Reno, grasping the red-head under his arms he was hauled up right again, the two acting out the strange pantomime many fools did who thought that somebody was stupid just because they could not speak. They dragged him bodily out of the room.

Axel and his mother were made to stand still and wait. For hours.

Later that night after Reno had been returned and a tough looking man had melted metal cords around their necks with brown drawstring sacks made of lizard skin hanging on them, Axel understood. He lay in his new bed fingering the little purse and whispered the words that would lead and direct him for possibly the rest of his life, "Only I can put coin in my bag."


	3. Chapter 3

_February 2411 _

"Role call! Line up!"

There was a wild scramble as everyone jumped from their bunks and stood to attention. Every morning as the sun rests on the horizon Hadi, the oldest and most respected bonder in Aye-Sir's service—Axel had heard from the other young bonders that he had chosen to stay a bondman and that was why he was treated so much better—did a role call.

Today, for whatever reason, Hadi stood off to the side while Aye-Sir himself did the call.

Aye-Sir cycled through the older men and woman, all standing tense and fidgety which was uncommon among the adult bonders as they had grown bored with their lives and just wanted to get on a work so they could go back to their miserable sleep and hopefully one day their miserable lives. Axel squirmed as he drew closer to the newer additions to his horde.

"Reno!"

Reno took a stiff step forward, head high and eyes wide, waiting for Aye-Sir to dismiss him. Instead a hand reached out and covered Aye-Sir's shoulder, stopping him.

He hadn't noticed the third man earlier; he was tall with pale yellow eyes and long silvery hair, darkly tanned also—definitely not from working outside, judging by his other features. He was the kind of guy you never saw walking around on the street; clean cut, crisp, and filthy rich.

The man circled Reno, hands clasps securely behind his back. He tilted his head and squinted and leaned in and pursed his lips. He stopped next to Aye-Sir, nodded once, leaned toward him, whispered in his ear and nodded again.

"How old?" His voice was harsh and Reno flinched slightly. He'd become more docile and frightened since a beating he received in their first month for "accidently" letting an entire case of crickets loose. He stopped trying to play the big, strong brother then, he wasn't pretending anymore.

"Speak!"

"He's dumb, sir." Even Aye-Sir seemed to shrink in the shadows of the strange man, "Can't speak."

"I know what that means." He snapped. His voice was harsh still, quick and angry but then evened out when he spoke again, and he sounded curious, "How old is he?"

"Fourteen, sir."

The man took Reno's face in one of his hands and turned his head slowly from side to side. "How much?"

"Seven hundred eighty."

"What? For a dumb bonder? How useful could he be to you that you're putting up such a price?"

Aye-Sir made a slicing movement with his hand, "That is my price. Take it or leave it."

"But why so expensive?" Axel couldn't believe it. They were negotiating how much it would coast to buy his brother!

"That family of his owes me lots a money. Parents gone. Other than this kid the only one left is the littleun." Aye-Sir nodded to him. "Over there."

The other man looked up at him curiously, "They look alike, interesting." Then louder, directing his voice at Axel, "How old are you?"

He froze like a mole lizard in the glows, then hesitantly he spoke, "Seven."

The man nodded again—he seemed to do a lot of that—and straightened up, glancing over at Aye-Sir he raised a brow, "How'd you end up with two kids and no parents, Aye?" He asked.

"Dad died 'round seven months ago, mom had no job an' family couldn't pay the mortgage on the house. Bought it off for 'em. Mom jumped ship after their first week here, don't know where she got the coin for it, six hundred seventy king credit, I mean if she could get that much then she coulda easily paid the mortgage." Aye shrugged, "Lady left town the same day."

"She was less than the kids?" He asked keeping his eyes on Axel.

"Kids last longer." He stated it matter-of-factly; like slave trading was something that everyone should know.

The man hummed and was about to push Reno aside when the boy grabbed the man's arm resting on his shoulder. Reno looked up, wide eyed and shook his head slightly.

After a moment of contemplation he straightened and dipped his head to Axel. Holding his gaze steady he took out a pouch and filled Aye-Sir's hand with half the gold he'd asked for. "Tack the rest on to the little one. I'll be back in five year's time, if I'm not, then at least he'll be a left time worker."

He stood, straightening his vest, "Come, Reno."

Axel watched the strange man hold the door for his brother, light pooling on the floor of the dark building. Reno turned for a moment framed by the square of yellow, looked back, as if he was unsure of his next step—as if he had control of his next step—stared at his brother like he was sorry, regretful even, for possibly everything that had happened to them. That final look was what Axel remembered above all else, not the beatings or the fist-fights or the dirt pile that Reno had made him feel less important than all his life, it was the shadow of him in the doorway with the sad smile barely visible that he vowed to chase.


End file.
